How Syria's chemical weapons are being destroyed

Seven countries are directly contributing to the process of decommissioning
Syria's chemical weapons stock and a total of 14 are providing funding. The
complex international operation behind transporting and destroying the
chemicals is explained below

Extracting the hazardous material — precursor chemicals used to produce sarin and mustard gas and a small amount of produced mustard gas, known as 'priority one' chemicals — is a complex international effort. The first stage is securely packing the chemicals at 12 sites across Syria, two of which are in the middle of battlefields, and transporting them to the port. This is the responsibility of the Syrian army, which will be guarded en route by armoured trucks provided by Russia.

They are then loaded on to two cargo ships provided by Denmark and Norway, which have also supplied naval vessels to escort the ships out of Syrian waters. Additional security at the port is being provided by Russian forces, while the US has supplied loading and decontamination equipment, China has supplied ambulances, and Finland has supplied an emergency response team in case of accidents.

The Danish cargo ship carrying the first batch of chemicals has now moved back out into international waters to wait for more chemicals to arrive at the port in Lattakia. Once the cargo ship has taken onboard its full consignment it will set sail for an unnamed port in Italy, protected by a flotilla of naval vessels from Denmark, Norway, Russia and China.

When the flotilla arrives at its destination in Italy it will transfer its cargo of priority one checmicals to a US Maritime Administration ship, the MV Cape Ray. Around 150 tonnes of priority two chemicals, toxic material not disimilar to industrial chemical agents, will be transported to the UK with the help of the Royal Navy and destroyed by a commercial company in the UK. The Foreign Office estimates the cost at less than £1 million.

Entrance to the trailer deck on the MV Cape Ray, where the mobile chemical treatment stations will be housed (AFP/GETTY)

The 648-foot, 22,000-tonne MV Cape Ray will then transport the priority one chemicals out into international waters in the Mediterranean, where US Military personnel will break them down in field stations on the ships' internal trailer deck. It will be the first time the US military has disposed of chemical weapons at sea.

None of the chemicals being extracted from Syria are mounted on munitions, removing the costly and dangerous process of separating hazardous chemicals from explosives and missile casings. The Syrian government has claimed that all of the munitions designed to carry the chemicals have been destroyed. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is overseeing the process of decommissioning Syria's chemical arsenal, has not been able to independently verify that claim.

The decommissioning process aboard the MV Cape Ray is therefore a purely chemical one. It will be done in two mobile stations called Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems, worth approximately $5 million (£3 million) each.

Close up of one of the Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems aboard the MV Cape Ray (AFP/GETTY)

The FDHS is designed to be operational within ten days of being set up at a decommissioning site and is capable of breaking down 130 gallons of mustard gas at a time, over the course of about two hours.

It does so using chemical hydrolysis - mixing the hazardous chemicals with reagents such as bleach, water, or sodium hydroxide. The process will result in about 1.5 million gallons of toxic effluent that can't be used as a chemical weapon and will be disposed of commercially.

According to Frank Kendall, the US undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics, the ship's personnel are expecting around 700 tonnes of chemicals. Working at full rate, the FDHS systems can destroy 50 metric tons of chemical warfare agents a day. The team aboard the MV Cape Ray will start slowly though, according to Bob Baker, a chemical technician who will work on the hydrolysis.

"It's going to be a slow start," said Baker. "We're going to go very deliberately and safely."

A Field Deployable Hydrolysis System in the tent at the back, the containers in the forefront contain reagents and waste products (EPA)

The US will fund all operations aboard the Cape Ray, while other countries are responsible for funding their own logisitcal contributions. The stock of priority two chemicals not going to Britain will be destroyed by commerical companies, with the subcontracted work paid from an £9.8 million fund made up of contributions from 14 undisclosed countries. The fund is controlled by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has been pledged a further £16.6 million towards the fund.